Iterations

Today is February 5th and it would have been my dad’s 83rd birthday. I normally mark the day by posting a simple message like “I miss you, Dad” on Instagram or Twitter, when Twitter was still a thing and I was still on it. Today, I want to do something a little different and tell you a story. My dad could be tough and for a big part of my adolescent life, we butted heads. A lot. At one point, it got pretty bad and we actually didn’t talk for a while. It seemed like we were often at odds with one another about something, but maybe that’s just how I need to remember it. When he got sick, we got another chance to get good and let all of the things that once seemed so important just melt away. As heartbreaking as it was to see him deteriorate like he did, I really am grateful for the time that it allowed us to spend together. We managed to get to a place where we respected each other, not just as men, but as father and son. We spent a lot of time on the front porch—often in silence. We watched a lot of westerns a

A couple weeks ago, I finally bought a set of wireless mics. I had been wanting and maybe even needing a set for a long time as a way to record the random conversations I seem to have with people out in the world on any given day. I’d been looking at them for a while, but I saw a review that Curtis Judd did—who was one of my favorite audio YouTubers—and I thought, “I'm just gonna get these. They'll be fine.” I had been going back-and-forth between the Røde Wireless Go IIs and the DJI Mics and then saw these Hollylands and thought, “You know what? I'm just gonna get them. The reviews are great (but specifically because I trusted Curtis).” So I bought them and they were just packaged so well and the design of the packaging was so well thought out—and borderline meticulous—that I decided I needed to do a video about it and talk about why those kinds of details are important—at least important to me.LINKSMy video “unboxing” of the Hollyland Lark Max micsHollyland Lark Max - 2-Person Wireless Microp

If you’ve spent any time around me at all, you know that I have opinions—lots of them—and I have since I was a kid. Sometimes when I would offer my unsolicited thoughts on various things, my mom would respond with “Oh, there he is…my little critic.” The thing is it’s not just criticism. Not always, anyway. More often than I generally care to admit, I find myself feeling personally offended, either by the design or functionality of a product or service or by someone—whether I know them or not—who simply doesn’t do something the way I think that it should be done. And to be clear, it’s not that I think that I’m better as much as I think that the way I do certain things is. I’m not right all the time and I have no problem admitting that. But when I am and I think that you’re not, I’ll happily tell you. I think it’s something I inherited from my dad—or maybe it’s a trait of undiagnosed neurodivergence. Either way, while I think I’ve gotten better about not being so critical (at least publicly), letting go of the

Well here we are again, nearing the end of one more trip around the sun and I for one cannot wait for it to be over. Christmas used to be my favorite time of year, but that was really because of my mom. She would start decorating the house around Thanksgiving, and when I say decorating, I don’t just mean putting up lights—our house looked and smelled like a Hallmark store. Yes, there were lights, but she also had all sorts of ornaments, figurines, and little holiday town squares and villages. She wrapped or swagged garland everywhere she could, displayed her favorite Christmas cards from years past, and sometimes you could barely see the actual Christmas tree because it was absolutely covered with lights, decorations, and tinsel. Lots of tinsel.CONNECT WITH MEWebsite: https://jefferysaddoris.com  Instagram: @jefferysaddorisSUBSCRIBESubscribe to Almost Everything with Jeffery Saddoris in your favorite podcast app.MUSICMusic For Workplaces by Jeffery Saddoris

Back in the late 70s, there was a terrific documentary on the BBC called Connections. It was hosted by historian and author James Burke and now that I think about it, I don’t remember whether I watched it on PBS or I borrowed VHS copies of it from my freshman English teacher, Mrs. Copeland who also loaned out copies of Cosmos. And to be clear, I’m talking about the Carl Sagan version, not the Neil Degrasse Tyson version. Regardless, the show was all about tracing the connections between things that on the surface share nothing in common. I found it fascinating and I think it inspired me to start looking deeper at the world around me to try to see how things might be related.CONNECT WITH MEWebsite: https://jefferysaddoris.com  Instagram: @jefferysaddorisSUBSCRIBESubscribe to Almost Everything with Jeffery Saddoris in your favorite podcast app.MUSICMusic For Workplaces by Jeffery Saddoris

As we get into this Iteration, I’d like to take a minute to let you know about some changes that I’m working on that will be rolling out in the coming weeks and months. Iterations will still be weekly (mostly), but I’m going to mix up the types of posts I’ll be including and treat it more like an old-school blog. For example, you may have noticed that the Blips have been getting more substantial in terms of the research I do and the number of links I include. They started out as a just few links to things that I saw or found interesting during the previous week and have been evolving into something more comprehensive and hopefully more interesting and inspiring for you. Moving forward, they’ll still be part of their own section on Substack, but I’m going to lose the word “Blip” and the number in the naming convention of the titles to alleviate any potential confusion that comes with having Blip number 47 alongside Iteration number 124. I’m also going to be adding reviews into the mix—and that could mean books

Over the past few days, the photography world has been buzzing about the “global shutter” on Sony’s new flagship A9 III. I’ve listened to various YouTubers andinfluencers talk about it as if it’s the second coming. They’re saying “it’s the most remarkable camera I’ve ever used” and calling it a “a game changer,” insisting that “it will change photography forever.”  But here’s the thing: for 99% of photographers, it won’t change anything. If this is all Greek to you, let me back up a minute and briefly explain what a global shutter is—and I promise that this Iteration is not just about photography.CONNECT WITH MEWebsite: https://jefferysaddoris.com  Twitter: @jefferysaddoris  Instagram: @jefferysaddorisSUBSCRIBESubscribe to Jeffery Saddoris: Almost Everything in your favorite podcast app to get more conversations like this. You can find the full written version of this Iteration on Substack.MUSICMusic For Workplaces by Jeffery Saddoris

They say that one of the best ways to solve a problem—at least a creative one—is actually not to think abut it. After all, how many times have you been doing something like taking a shower or going for a long walk and you find yourself having one of those eureka moments where suddenly the solution to a problem you’ve been wrestling with forever seems so clear? It happens to me a lot and it’s one of the reasons that taking walks in the forest behind our house has become a daily ritual. Trying to be present in something other than active problem solving allows our brains to continue working in the background without us trying to consciously force a solution. The act of stepping away from a problem is called the “incubation period” and it’s been studied for decades. In his book The Art of Thought, Graham Wallas proposed that the creative process is made up of four stages: Preparation (the acquisition of knowledge to some task), Incubation (the background process that occurs when conscious attention is diverted a

As I was working through the recent redesign of my website—which you can read about or listen to in the last Iteration—I started to look at some of the other software I was using to see whether what I was using still made sense for the projects I’ll be doing in the coming year. I think it’s sometimes easy to get into a routine of using tools that are “good enough” that we just don’t look for potentially better options. I know that’s been true for me. About eight years ago, I ditched Photoshop completely and started using the Affinity suite of Photo, Designer, and Publisher, which by and large have been great. There are a few features I miss, but nothing that’s really kept me from doing the work that I needed to do. CONNECT WITH MEWebsite: https://jefferysaddoris.com  Twitter: @jefferysaddoris  Instagram: @jefferysaddorisSUBSCRIBESubscribe to Jeffery Saddoris: Almost Everything in your favorite podcast app to get more conversations like this. You can find the full written version of this Iteration on Substack.

Last week I did a soft-launch of my newly redesigned website, which in an of itself isn’t all that unique since I’ve resigned my website dozens of times over the years. What is unique—or at least different—is the overall focus of the site and the process I went through putting it together this time around. I started by asking myself a relatively simple question: do I even need a website? The most common answer is “Yes, of course,” which is often followed by “especially because you’re an artist.” But I actually know quite a few “creatives” who don’t have their own websites. Some rely on a strong social media presence, some have gallery representation that drives sales of originals or prints, and others just have a storefront, so that a dedicated personal site isn’t really necessary. CONNECT WITH MEWebsite: https://jefferysaddoris.com  Twitter: @jefferysaddoris  Instagram: @jefferysaddorisSUBSCRIBESubscribe to Jeffery Saddoris: Almost Everything in your favorite podcast app to get more conversations like this.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about inertia and motion and how it applies to my creative practice. We know that Newton’s First Law of Motion says that an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless some sort of external force acts against it. Conversely, an object at rest will tend to stay at rest. But I would argue that the Fist Law also applies to intangibles like thoughts and ideas. For example, this week has flown by. Actually, the past couple of weeks have and I think it’s because I’ve been working through so many ideas and potential projects—and I’ve been working on them differently than I have in the past, which I think is what’s making all the difference. And to be clear, when I say “working,” sometimes that means just letting an idea go until it needs to be addressed. For some things that means now, but for others, that may mean next year. CONNECT WITH MEWebsite: https://jefferysaddoris.com  Twitter: @jefferysaddoris  Instagram: @jefferysaddorisSUBSCRIBESubscribe to Jeffery Saddoris: Almost Ev

Next month is the tenth anniversary of my dad’s death, so naturally I’ve been thinking about him a lot. Last year, I completely forgot about it, which I tried to tell myself was actually healthy, but I just ended up feeling guilty about forgetting. If you’ve been following me for a while, or you’re an OTP listener, you know that my relationship with my dad was often difficult, to say the least. But as I’ve been thinking about him lately and how I’ve talked about our relationship in the past, I feel like maybe I’ve been a little incomplete in how I’ve portrayed him. I loved my dad, no matter how close or how far we were in the moment, and the truth is that he’s just as responsible for my creativity and to an extent my curiosity as my mom and my stepmother were.CONNECT WITH MEWebsite: https://jefferysaddoris.com  Twitter: @jefferysaddoris  Instagram: @jefferysaddorisSUBSCRIBESubscribe to Jeffery Saddoris: Almost Everything in your favorite podcast app to get more conversations like this. You can find the full w

Are you overwhelmed? Do you ever get overwhelmed? Man, I do. All the time. My brain is always on and processing—either trying to process existing ideas or trying to figure out where to put all of the new ones that I haven’t had time to really think about. And it doesn’t stop. It’s all day, every day. There’s always a bunch of potential somethings bouncing around my head. And let me be clear—I love it and I’m grateful for it, but it is overwhelming and exhausting trying to keep track of it all and figure out where to put all of those ideas.CONNECT WITH MEWebsite: https://jefferysaddoris.com  Twitter: @jefferysaddoris  Instagram: @jefferysaddorisSUBSCRIBESubscribe to Jeffery Saddoris: Almost Everything in your favorite podcast app to get more conversations like this. You can find the full written version of this Iteration on Substack.MUSICMusic For Workplaces by Jeffery Saddoris

I’m still not quite 100% myself, but I wanted to share a quick update. Yesterday was day 12 since testing positive for COVID, and it was the first day that I finally tested negative. Both Adrianne and I had very mild cases, especially compared to some of our friends and family members who really had a it bad. I had a temperature of 100.8 for one day and, other than feeling fatigued and brain fogged for the past week or so, that was pretty much it. Adrianne had it a little worse than me, but not much. The most frustrating part was continuing to test positive for days after the symptoms had subsided. And according to the latest from the CDC, you can continue to test positive for 90 days.CONNECT WITH MEWebsite: https://jefferysaddoris.com  Twitter: @jefferysaddoris  Instagram: @jefferysaddorisSUBSCRIBESubscribe to Jeffery Saddoris: Almost Everything in your favorite podcast app to get more conversations like this. You can find the full written version of this Iteration on Substack.MUSICMusic For Workplaces by Je

I know I’m a little late on this Iteration and I apologize for that. As you can hear, my voice doesn’t sound the way it normally does and maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe it sounds better.In the Iteration I was going to do, I was going to talk about finding that thing you live for, that thing that you love, that thing that lights you up. But I have to postpone it because I’m just having a hell of a time stringing two thoughts together. Even going through this right now, I’m live without a net, as it were. I don’t have a script or any outline like I normally would have when I record one of these. For this one, all I have is COVID and apparently have had it since sometime over the weekend—and let me tell you, it is not fun. Don’t listen to all of those stories telling you how great it is and how all the cool kids are getting it. It’s a lie. I’ve been vaxxed and vaxxed again boosted and, you know, while all of that probably means that it’s much less severe and means that the odds of me needing to go the hospital

This Iteration was going to be about some of my recent musical explorations into things like VCV Rack and the Arturia MiniFreak (which I may actually end up selling), but instead I’d like to share a recent story with you that sort of blew my mind.CONNECT WITH MEWebsite: https://jefferysaddoris.com  Twitter: @jefferysaddoris  Instagram: @jefferysaddorisSUBSCRIBESubscribe to Jeffery Saddoris: Almost Everything in your favorite podcast app to get more conversations like this. You can find the full written version of this Iteration on Substack.MUSICMusic For Workplaces by Jeffery Saddoris

When I was a kid, one of the things I would look forward to every year was going to the fair. The LA County Fair was massive and in elementary school we always got free tickets—I think they were stapled to our report cards, but I could be wrong. Although I moved around a lot as a kid, it seemed like we never lived very far from the fairgrounds, which are right next to the Pomona Raceway. My dad would take us there to watch the NHRA Winternationals every year and see people like “Big Daddy” Don Garlits and Don “The Snake” Prudhomme drive like bats out of hell down the 1/4 mile. I remember reading that at one point the LA County Fair was the largest county fair in the nation, but I don’t know if that’s still true. That said, to a 10-year-old, it was huge. QUESTIONSWhat’s your favorite part of your creative process?Do you give that part of your process the time it deserves?Email me at talkback@jefferysaddoris.comLINKSSanta Anita Montgomery County Agricultural FairMaryland State FairOlympus EM1 MkII12-40mm f/2.8

Over the weekend, Adrianne and I watched a fantastic new documentary by Anton Corbijn called Squaring the Circle. It’s about Hipgnosis, the legendary design agency in London formed in the late 1960s by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell, or “Po” to his friends. I knew I was going to love it before I even saw the trailer because so much of their work has been etched into my brain over the past four decades of my life. The work they did for Pink Floyd alone would have made them industry icons, but they also worked with Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney, T Rex, Yes, Genesis, 10cc, and a ton of other bands over the course of their 15-year run.LINKSSquaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) | Official Red Band Trailer | UtopiaAnton Corbijn on Squaring the Circle, Hipgnosis, Album Covers & Kurt CobainCategory:Album covers by HipgnosisStorm Thorgerson | Designing The ImpossibleStorm Thorgerson, Pt. 1Storm Thorgerson, Pt. 2CONNECT WITH MEWebsite: https://jefferysaddoris.com  Twitter: @jefferysaddoris  Instagram: @je

I’ve come to the conclusion that I can no longer care what you think about my work. And it’s not that I don’t care about you as an audience, but if I’m worried about you liking what I make while I’m still making it or even in deciding what to make, I’m not putting 100% of myself into it. By not caring what you think, I get to put 100% of my ideas, my skills, and my experience—not to mention effort—into what I’m doing, and ultimately that’s better for everyone.LINKSKate BushThe Kick Inside22 consecutive dates at the Hammersmith ApolloCONNECT WITH MEWebsite: https://jefferysaddoris.com  Twitter: @jefferysaddoris  Instagram: @jefferysaddorisSUBSCRIBESubscribe to Jeffery Saddoris: Almost Everything in your favorite podcast app to get more conversations like this. You can find the full written version of this Iteration on Substack.MUSICMusic For Workplaces by Jeffery Saddoris

I’ve hesitated to really talk much about AI, mostly because I’ve been on the fence about whether I think it’s got the potential to save us or destroy us, and depending on who and what you read, it seems like it’s 50/50 either way. It’s just too soon to tell and I think these technologies are being adopted so quickly that we haven’t given ourselves enough time to think about the ramifications or the potential. Instead, everyone is rushing to become an armchair expert so they can monetize it into oblivion before they even understand it. Honestly, a lot of the talk around AI feels like a YouTube short that promises to teach you how to make thousands of dollars a month from affiliate marketing and drop shipping. Still, some of the image generation tools are interesting and I’ve been wondering whether or not there’s a place for AI in my creative workflow. I know there are a ton of legal and even moral and ethical questions that I still need to sort out for myself, but for the purposes of this Iteration, I’m going